Watching Rob Ford’s scandals is currently this town’s best spectator sport, and thanks to his long-time fandom, his antics have easily crossed over into the sports media pundit world.

As evidenced by the utterances of late-night talk show hosts, it is clearly the most entertaining scandal in the world, and he’s clearly usurping Don Cherry as this country’s most controversial former coach.

Ford and sports go hand-in-hand, and while this week started with Don Cherry expressing his disappointment with the mayor — and doesn’t that seem so long ago? — it ended with the Argos chastising him for wearing their jersey while making lewd comments.

Also buried in his salacious scattershot approach was the fact that his comments came after issuing a challenge to Hamilton’s mayor, where he completely mangled his counterpart’s name — saying “Britannia” instead of the correct “Bratina” — which would normally be some kind of municipal political incident, but in Toronto’s current climate doesn’t even rate as a drop in the bucket. Although the Hamilton Spectator’s editorial columnist, Graeme MacKay, caught it and did some fine work.

As well as his lewd language, the Argos also took his “We’re going to spank their Ticats” as their point of contention, which led to their admonishment of the mayor, as they have done work against bullying. The thing is, the Argo backlash, and being declared persona non grata at this weekend’s Eastern final, is something that might actually affect the mayor due to his unabashed love of everything football.

Remember, for all that this paper has written about the mayor, it was a 2010 story about a confrontation with one of his football players that started the mayor’s ‘no speaking to the Toronto Star’ policy. Also, in the ITO search warrant documents, Ford was reportedly in tears and distraught when he was stripped of coaching his Don Bosco team.

It almost seems like ancient history when he was drunk in public at a Maple Leaf game. His murderous rant video has been passed off by some as some sort of wrestling tribute, and let’s not forget he arm wrestled (and “beat”) Hulk Hogan in Toronto this past August, which has led some other former wrestlers, including The Iron Sheik, like moths to the flame of his spectacle these past two weeks.

His choice in hideous football ties has been the subject of articles and blogs, but it is clear that the world of sports is where he is comfortable, and something that he uses to help project his man of the people image.

Cherry does seem like a soothsayer, with his “and you can put that in your pipe” kicker line from Ford’s inauguration, and when you start looking the similarities between the two they are striking, even though their controversies are several degrees apart with Ford’s clearly on another scale.

Both fashion themselves as plain-speaking men of the people despite being wealthy. They both pick uninpeachable causes — for Cherry, it’s the military, while for Ford it’s his “respect for the taxpayers” mantra. They have their hardcore followers who will never sway.

Both have found a way to wriggle free and move past seemingly insurmountable controversies, including making bigoted remarks, the kind which have easily felled fellow politicians and broadcasters.

The thing that both do well — and it is a perfect sports analogy — is always frame things with an “us against them” mentality. There’s no room for nuance or grey areas.

Sports has always been one of Ford’s refuges, and it, like so much else, it seems to be in the process of abandoning him, and another area where he is becoming a pariah.

Of course, there is always a place for famous, controversial big mouths: television.

This is why it makes perfect sense that Ford and his brother, Doug, are taking their act to the Sun News Network for a television show starting this Monday evening. Ostensibly, it will be another place to spread their propaganda, but we’re sure some sports will seep in.

Like so much of what Ford does, he just can’t help it.

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